Do my reed petals look ok?

[sleddad]

Hello all!  Long time reader but don’t recall if I’ve ever posted before. I’ll start by saying I’m no mechanic but I’m trying to learn little by little, so please be patient with “stupid” questions. Anyway, just wanted second opinion on how these reed petals look. They look good to me but I don’t know if there are some very minute things to look out for. Any input is appreciated!

[Shooter88]

Look good to me. As long as there are no chips and you can't see any light shining through where they sit against the block then you should be good. 

[theBIGnaud]

How are the retaining hardware holes? No cracks. Seating properly? Did the bike hard a hard start? Avoid spraying harsh solvent on them when cleaning. I would use soapy water. 

[sleddad]

Retaining holes seem fine and seating was fine. Bikes starts good, typically first or second kick. It just has a bog when being bounced around in whoops, braking bumps, etc, or right after letting off the throttle. On downhills or quick deceleration  I have to keep blipping the throttle to keep it from dying. My mechanic buddy has gone through the carb I don’t know how many times and plug still gives a rich reading. Couple riders I was with last weekend quickly said I bet your reeds are bad. So pulled them out tonight to take a look. 

[Motox367]

I would check your needle valve and floats .clean petcock,and inlet to carb make sure shits not in there.check conections exc. Deff not reeds 

Edited June 21, 2018 by Motox367

[mlatour]

Agreed with Motox367, the float height is likely off.

 

BTW, reeds can be worn out despite having no physical damage, especially on high revving small bore (85,125)

as the petals loose tension with usage and start to flutter at higher rpms. (less top end)

[GCannon]

Float level or worn needle

Also make sure all you carb vent hoses are clear.

[dezryder]

I agree with the others that question the carb. As several have said, check the float function and level. If they check out, keep looking in the carb. Your reeds look like new to me.

[zig06]

On ‎6‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 9:29 PM, sleddad said:

Retaining holes seem fine and seating was fine. Bikes starts good, typically first or second kick. It just has a bog when being bounced around in whoops, braking bumps, etc, or right after letting off the throttle. On downhills or quick deceleration  I have to keep blipping the throttle to keep it from dying. My mechanic buddy has gone through the carb I don’t know how many times and plug still gives a rich reading. Couple riders I was with last weekend quickly said I bet your reeds are bad. So pulled them out tonight to take a look. 

When you say that your mechanic has gone through the carb, is he just "looking" for something wrong like the float height or something plugged?, or is he changing jets too?

 

21 hours ago, mlatour said:

Agreed with Motox367, the float height is likely off.

 

BTW, reeds can be worn out despite having no physical damage, especially on high revving small bore (85,125)

as the petals loose tension with usage and start to flutter at higher rpms. (less top end)

"Yes!", reeds can and do wear out.  MXA suggested that they get replaced at least once a year, I personally only replace them when I do the piston - however long it goes.  My personal preferred replacement go to reeds are Boyesen Pro Series, they offer the best bang for the buck!

[Dan Williams]

On trials bikes this sort of thing happens a lot. Two things that are common, float level too high and float travel tab not adjusted. There are two adjustment tabs on the float arms. The one that contacts the float valve sets the float level. The 90 degree tab that contacts the tower the float pivot sits in limits the travel of the floats. The conical shape of the float valve means it’s fully open within about a millimeter of travel. Anything more than this just lets the floats slam around in the bowl causing all kinds of weirdness. This is one of those secret little tuning things that few people ever think about and factory mechanics all know. I learned it from a trials tuning legend named Billy Traynor. Now you know.

[sleddad]

Thanks for all the input guys!  So far I went ahead and replaced the reeds since I knew they were at a minimum 2.5 years old. Put in Boysen power reeds. Also checked all the vent tubes and 3 were plugged (thanks for that tip!) so cleaned them out. Put it back together, fired it up, and now it wants to run like crazy, as in super fast idle!  Played with idle screw which made no change. I assume I need to make more carb adjustments now?

[sleddad]

Never mind, found my error.  When putting the tank back on the petcock caught the throttle cable and hung it open. Stupid error........but easy fix. Gonna do some test and tune tomorrow.